Marketing Experiments Gone Wrong?
Jul 17 2008
I was growing tired of my subscription to MarketingExperiments from Marketing Sherpa. It was not due to the frequency or content as whole, but that the stuff that they kept sending did not feel relevant and I was not ever engaging it. So it was not a break up but more like a “It’s me, not you” type of thing. Well maybe it was a little bit of them. Still love the Sherpa.
What took me for a loop was the opt out method. It was not any reason except of the copy. “You will be notified of the success or failure by email.” What the heck is this? Is this to let me know that they will be sending an email to me one last time to let me know I was removed? But what happens if I got the failure email? The fact that they gave me doubt that using the system to unsubscribe might have a chance of not working was a bad experience.
When we are building trust in email and more importantly in the opt out process, we need to do everything in our power to make people feel that this is a trusted system and that that action will work. 100% of the time we need to reinforce that there should be trust. Now I don’t want to dwell too much on the fact that they are using an ESP system without the URL or brand in the creative or domain, but I do want to point it out. Trust starts in the relationship and online trust happens best when it is in the brand experience that we have provided our information to.
Do you use another type of ESP provided page for this? Should you be? Is there a way that you can take their code and add it to your domain and brand experience? I know that the answers to these questions are yes, but many marketers do not take the time to implement it. It should be something you take the time to do, even if it means just adding your brand and some clear copy to it.
Of course I got the email letting me know I was removed, but still the time between the confirmation email arriving and me staring at this screen gave me just enough time to wonder what the heck this all meant. Lesson: Don’t give your subscribers any reason to not trust or doubt that their information is not in a safe and trusted place with a brand that they trust.
Published in Behavioral Marketing, Best Practices, Brand Marketing, Worst Of Email on Thursday, July 17th, 2008
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5) 
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July 17th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Hi Dylan,
Some time off is probably best for both of us. We must admit, we were getting a little jealous of your heavy petting with Sherpa. I mean, it’s our sister brand — have you no shame?
On a serious note, I think you’ve raised some good points, especially regarding trust-building. It’s also a reminder that with all the effort devoted to the front end (attracting new subscribers, working to improve content, asking for feedback, etc.), optimizing the exit door often winds up near the bottom of the list.
We’ve been making some major changes to our email process too, so the timing on your post (except maybe the unsubscribe part) couldn’t have been better.
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I am glad that you understand why I am hot for Sherpa. I mean hotter, younger, better designed, frequency is consistent and expected and always, always leaves me with a smile on my face.
ahhhhhh. Sorry there I was just reflecting on how I felt this AM when I saw her in my inbox.
MarketingExperiments… there will always be us and there will always be then. But until you can WOW me like the Sherpa does we might have to just decide to be friends… distant friends.
Thanks for participating by commenting and not lurking. er I mean stalking.